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World Affairs
“You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.” Naguib Mahfouz

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  4. MI5 telegrams 'fed interrogation'
    A UK resident held at Guantanamo releases memos he says show UK intelligence colluded in his interrogation.

    Sudan president plans Darfur trip
    Sudanese President Bashir says he will go to Darfur, his first visit there since an international arrest warrant was issued for him.

    N Korea holds parliamentary poll
    North Korea votes in elections which observers say could give a clue to the country's eventual succession.

Popular Questions
  1. Claire is asking Gordon Brown: "Hello Gordon Surely this crisis isn't just about banks and whether they lend money. Surely it's also that we're used to buying things on credit and perhaps spending money we haven't got. Now things have..." Show more »"Hello Gordon
    Surely this crisis isn't just about banks and whether they lend money. Surely it's also that we're used to buying things on credit and perhaps spending money we haven't got. Now things have gone wrong I see all the problems - friends who've lost jobs and prices of things going up... and can't think of any solutions.
    Is there anything that mums like me can do to make a difference?? Something that doesn't involve spending momey I've not got!" Show less »
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  1. Sadbog74 is asking Gordon Brown: "How can we ensure Obama's administration doesn't retreat into protectionism? The argument should be that there are 2 options: 1) Retreating into protectionism, making the recession worse for Americans..." Show more »"How can we ensure Obama's administration doesn't retreat into protectionism? The argument should be that there are 2 options: 1) Retreating into protectionism, making the recession worse for Americans and the world by destroying the wealth created by global trade and global markets. Eventually when the American economy starts to grow again, Re-globalization will occur, recreating the chaotic problems of today's unregulated global trade, leading to another global financial crisis in 10 or 15 years time. 2) Rising to the challenge of creating a Global Democratic Economic Regulatory institution, allowing for the continuation of globalization and wealth creation and jobs, and importantly, economic stability that will come from global regulation, and greatly reducing the chances of a future global financial crisis. These institutions could potentially allow for wealth redistribution, meaning common money could be used to invest in and develop the economies of LEDC's, which would be beneficiary to MEDC's as world GDP would increase and world market's would grow in size and wealth creation, thus spreading wealth into MEDC's. We can synthesize the interests of individual nations and the collective global community to serve them both better, if we create a democratic global economic institution." Show less »
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  1. shazkl is asking Gordon Brown: "Could you explain to me where all the money is coming from whixh you are pumping into the economy if we already have a huge national debt? Many Thanks."
  2. 26

  1. amiaschanner is asking Gordon Brown: "I would like to know what moves are being made to remove and punish the people who have caused this financial mess. The people who are responsible for the dangerous lending and predatory speculation that..." Show more »"I would like to know what moves are being made to remove and punish the people who have caused this financial mess. The people who are responsible for the dangerous lending and predatory speculation that has caused this chaos appear to still be in the their jobs and getting bonuses from the bailout money.

    I would like to know what is being done to recover the money that has been effectively stolen by these people and why this is in the public interest.

    The government constantly talks about growth as good without actually specifiing reasons for it. Is it not more sustainable to establish a limit
    and work within that limit ?  and furthermore , is it not contraditory to any notion of sustainabily  to constantly seek growth ? This is after all the lead that nature shows us through evolution , suitability is all 

    Growth may have been a valid objective after the world wars when
    repairing depleted econoomies but we should not be recovering from
    them anymore , we should be consolodating by strengthing local communites and helping them become more sustainable.

    The only things we should be growing now are food and trees 
    " Show less »
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  1. RaoulFishman is asking Gordon Brown: "As a solution to the global credit crunch I would like Gordon Brown to consider the following for the G20 summit in April.  Instead of TARP, quantitiative easing as a solution,  why not consider working..." Show more »"

    As a solution to the global credit crunch I would like Gordon Brown to consider the following for the G20 summit in April.  Instead of TARP, quantitiative easing as a solution,  why not consider working towards a global solution? This would entail a debt write off.  The way it would work is that world governemtns should be asked to compile their countries debt/credit exposure. An arrangement to compensate countries that would lose from the debt write off would haveto be agreed. 
    New rules for a global financial structure would then need to be thrashed out.  The benefit of the debt write off is that the world economy can then grow from a fresh start,  without being burdened by bad debts,  bad banks etc.  

    " Show less »
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MORE QUESTIONS!
Recent Questions
  1. sangeetha is asking Gordon Brown: "I had the opportunity to meet you during the 2005 election time and ask you a question. At that time my question was about what you were going to do about Africa. Have you after coming to power had time..." Show more »"I had the opportunity to meet you during the 2005 election time and ask you a question. At that time my question was about what you were going to do about Africa. Have you after coming to power had time to do something about the poverty in Africa? With the current economic situation, will the world forget about the less fortunate children in Africa?" Show less »
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  1. pereralp is asking Gordon Brown: "London summit can only address the fallout of the global financial crisis (GFC) but dont you think that to resolve the crisis it is absolutely necessary to neuter the 'toxic' assets? Toxic assets are..." Show more »"

    London summit can only address the fallout of the global financial crisis (GFC) but dont you think that to resolve the crisis it is absolutely necessary to neuter the 'toxic' assets?
    Toxic assets are not the bad loans. Bad loans have been made in the past and the banking system has proven methods to deal with them. The toxic assets are the derivatives that propped up the bad loans and spread widely the fallout. Credit default securities on the massive scale that was circulated around the global banking system were very different from mortgage insurance of a single borrower (one to one relationship manageable within traditional banking systems). The cancer in the global financial system is these credit default securities. We now know they breached prudential care requirements, both on the part of the originator (inadequate disclosure) and on the part of the credit agencies (inadequate examination to accord those high rating values).

     

    There is now enough evidence for the US administration to declare these 'credit default securities' null and void. The originators of these securities must be asked to un-wind them. This means the parties who were paid credit default cover premiums should pay back those monies. This is a major improvement for the affected financial institutions since the small payment of the premium clears a very large potential liability from their balance sheets. Affected financial institutions are continuing to sell assets to repair balance sheets and in the process destroying the value of their remaining assets (shares, bonds, loan liabilities, etc) and the asset values of other financial institutions. It is a spiral, the more value is destroyed the more the credit default exposure.
    Will you speak to the US administration to rectify the problem their financial wizards created, by taking appropriate action to ban of the toxic derivatives behind the GFC?

    " Show less »
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  1. SallyR is asking Gordon Brown: "Don’t forget the environment It is pointed out that there is now almost no mention of the problems of global warming, yet the recession is a relatively short term problem compared with climate change!..." Show more »"Don’t forget the environment
    It is pointed out that there is now almost no mention of the problems of global warming, yet the recession is a relatively short term problem compared with climate change! What can we do to re-build an economy that doesn’t rely on oil? And alongside that, a number of Netmums members ask what practical suggestions are there for improving rented  and council housing? For example, for many families in rented housing, can we set higher standards for landlords to make our homes more energy efficient?" Show less »
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  1. SallyR is asking Gordon Brown: "Cost of living Netmums members are concerned about the cost of living and point to the fact that Council tax has been going up each year, and now wages are going down and it’s very hard to make ends ..." Show more »"Cost of living
    Netmums members are concerned about the cost of living and point to the fact that Council tax has been going up each year, and now wages are going down and it’s very hard to make ends meet. Do you expect local council tax to continue to rise, or can something be done about that? Will you look at raising the thresholds, for tax credits and so on, to take account of cost of living rises?" Show less »
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  1. nicolam is asking Gordon Brown: "What is going to be done about reducing the huge amount of borrowing that has been deemed "necessary" to bail out the banks? Currently the private sector (with the exception of bankers)  is bearing the..." Show more »"What is going to be done about reducing the huge amount of borrowing that has been deemed "necessary" to bail out the banks? Currently the private sector (with the exception of bankers)  is bearing the brunt of the depression. My husbands pension fund that he has be contributing to for the past 10 years has currently lost 30% with probably more to go. Steps should be taken to reduce the huge public sector and to get rid of their gold plated pensions. MPs should lead by example and have a pay (and expenses) freeze for the foreseeable future - after all if we are heading for a period of deflation perhaps that should be a pay cut!" Show less »
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